THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
THE KAISER 



MORTON PRINCE 







Class.. :' 1 : 

Book ~Yl 



Copyright N?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




THE KAISER TAKEN UNAWARES. 



THE PSYCHOLOGY 
OF THE KAISER 

A Study of His Sentiments 
and His Obsession 

BY 

MORTON PRINCE 




BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER 

TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 

LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN 

1915 



Copyright, 19 15, by Morton Prince 
All Rights Reserved 



Urterwood wui Underwood 



The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 

AUG -7 1915 

©CI.A410016 



SYNOPSIS 

I. The Kaiser's Antipathy. 
II. The Kaiser's Prerogatives. 

III. The Kaiser's Divine Right De- 

lusion. 

IV. The German Autocracy and 

the Army. 

V. The Kaiser's Sentiments. 

VI. The Kaiser's Self-Regarding 
Sentiment. 

VII. Aims of the German Democracy. 

VIII. The Real Cause of the Kaiser's 
Antipathy. 

IX. The Kaiser's Antipathy an Ob- 
session and a Defense Reac- 
tion. 

The Moral 



THE PSYCHOLOGY 
OF THE KAISER 



THE PSYCHOLOGY OF 
THE KAISER 

i 

THE KAISER'S ANTIPATHY 

|"N the consciousness of the Kaiser there 
■*■ is nothing that is more dominant than 
his increasing and virulent antipathy to a 
great body of citizens constituting no less 
than one-third of his empire — the Social 
Democrats. 

We have all read of the Kaiser's hatred 
of the party known as the Social Demo- 
cratic Party. We have read the epithets 
which he has constantly hurled at them, 
and of his antipathy to their creeds. 
"Traitors," "a plague that must be ex- 
terminated," "a horde of men unworthy 

7 



8 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

to bear the name of Germans," "foes to 
the country and empire," "people with- 
out a country and enemies of religion," 
he has called them. 

To a delegation of striking miners he 
said: 

For me every Social Democrat is synony- 
mous with an enemy of the empire and of 
his country. If, therefore, I believe that 
there are any Socialist tendencies in the move- 
ment [the strike of 100,000 men], stirring 
up to unlawful resistance, I shall act with 
merciless rigor and bring to bear all the 
power at my disposal — which is great. 

Again : 

The doctrines of the Social Democrats are 
not only opposed to the commandments of 
God and Christian morality but are also al- 
together unpractical, being equally injurious 
to the individuals and the whole community. 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 9 

So violent is the hatred of the Kaiser 
toward this party that he even has thought 
it might come to suppressing it by the 
army. He said to the young soldiers at 
Potsdam: 

For you there is only one foe, and that is 
my foe. In view of our present Socialist 
troubles, it may come to this, that I command 
you to shoot down your own relatives, 
brothers, and even parents, in the streets, 
which God forbid; but then you must obey 
my orders without a murmur. 

Why so much feeling? Why such re- 
current outbursts of anger and hatred 
against a political party which in num- 
bers is twice as large as any other single 
party in the empire, a party which in 
191 2 cast 4,250,000 votes * and which was 

* The total vote cast was 12,207,000. The number of 
Social Democrats elected was not fairly proportionate 
to the voting strength of the party owing to the pecu- 



io The Psychology of the Kaiser 

represented in the German Parliament in 
1912 by no members, the representatives 

liar election laws existing in the different states of Ger- 
many. Hence ballot reform was the principal imme- 
diate issue of the party before the war. In Prussia, 
for example, there is what is called the "three-class 
system." The voters are divided into three classes ac- 
cording to the amount of taxes paid, the total taxes 
being divided into three equal parts. "Then, starting 
with the highest taxpayers, those voters whose taxes 
total the first third of taxes paid constitute the first 
class of electors. They are the wealthiest men and nat- 
urally are smallest in numbers. 

"The second class is made up of those electors who 
pay taxes equal to the second division. Their number 
is a little larger. The third class is made up of all 
the rest of the voters. 

"Each class elects the same number of deputies to the 
Reichstag. Obviously the respectable middle class com- 
posed of that element in Continental politics known as 
the bourgeoisie throws its vote with that of the aris- 
tocracy against the people at large. In one careful 
analysis of this system the ratio in the division was 
roughly as follows : one voter in the first class ; thirty-two 
voters in the second class; three hundred and fifty voters 
in the third class. 

"Now the exclusive gentleman in the first class elected 
just as many members of the Reichstag as did the 350 
workingmen in the third class, or the thirty-two well-to- 
do business men in the second class." ("The Kaiser," 
edited by Asa Don Dickenson, p. 105.) 



The Psychology of the Kaiser II 

of over 21,000,000 people, nearly one- 
third of the population? 

S. P. Orth ("Socialism and Democracy in Europe") 
gives various instances of the inequality which appears 
in the cities. "In Berlin in one precinct one man 
paid one-third of the taxes and consequently possessed 
one-third of the legislative influence in that precinct. 
In another precinct the president of a large bank paid 
one-third of the taxes, and two of his associates paid 
another third. These three men named the member of 
the Diet from that precinct." 

In Saxony the electorate is divided into four classes 
according to their income. The members of each class 
have respectively 1, 2, 3, and 4 votes. Consequently, in 
1909 18,491 voters of the fourth class, having 4 votes 
each, cast 73,964 votes, while 32,567 voters of the first 
class cast only 32,567 votes. 

Corresponding inequalities of representation neces- 
sarily followed. 

One result of the election laws is that the cities where 
the Social Democrats preponderate have very small rep- 
resentation, while the rural districts where the conser- 
vatives (Junkers) are a majority have a dispropor- 
tionately large representation. Thus Greater Berlin with 
850,000 voters, where the Social Democrats are in a vast 
majority, was represented in the Reichstag by only eight 
members while the same number of voters in the small 
rural districts were represented by forty-eight mem- 
bers. Again: The city of Berlin in 1910 with a popu- 
lation of 2,000,000 was governed by 33,062 persons, owing 
to the three-class system of voting. 



12 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

These are strong words of the Kaiser's 
I have quoted. They are not mere invec- 
tives uttered during the heat of a politi- 
cal campaign. They are not to be classed 
with those emotional castigations with 
which political stump-speech orators, 
working themselves up to a state of pas- 
sionate indignation, flay their adversaries, 
and which are promptly forgotten as soon 
as the campaign is ended — albeit the 
Kaiser is essentially a stump-speech ora- 
tor. 

We have all learned not to take seri- 
ously the ephemeral indignation of the 
political orator. But the Kaiser's denun- 
ciation of the Social Democrats is the 
expression of an antipathy which is fixed, 

It may also be pointed out that the 4,250,000 votes 
cast by the Social Democrats in 1912 do not represent 
the whole opposition to the autocracy, inasmuch as cer- 
tain liberal groups, the progressives and the people's 
party cast together 1,506,000 votes. 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 13 

deep-rooted, persistent, and is a part of 
his personality, for it has manifested it- 
self in the form of recurrent attacks of 
anger and hatred ever since he came to 
the throne, twenty-seven years ago. It is 
like unto an obsessing idea, common 
enough, which, fixed deep down in the 
mind, rises in consciousness whenever its 
object presents itself. 

Fixed antipathies are always, for the 
psychologist, objects of interesting study, 
but for others, even in an Emperor, they 
are little more than matters of intellectual 
curiosity unless the antipathy is one of 
practical political import, one that affects 
the policies of Government and the course 
of history. 

If the antipathy of the Kaiser were 
only of that trivial kind common to many 
people, which is manifested as a dread 
of snakes, or of death, or other banal ob- 



14 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

ject, its study would be of little practical 
interest excepting for its victim, Wil- 
liam II. himself, although the revelation 
of its origin and meaning would give an 
insight into one component, however un- 
important, of an exalted personality. 

The periodical recurrence of the an- 
tipathy and the psychological reactions to 
which it gave rise would probably affect 
the happiness of no one but himself and 
the unhappy members of his family who 
would have to bear the brunt of it. No 
one is interested in other people's symp- 
toms. 

But it is different when such a recur- 
ring antipathy is of a political nature. 
Then by a study of the underlying causes 
of this obsessing idea we not only can ob- 
tain an insight into important components 
of the personality of a great historical 
character, but we should expect to find 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 15 

the true motives which have determined 
those policies of Government and the 
course of history which have been the 
direct result of the antipathy. 

The Kaiser's hatred of the Social 
Democrats has had momentous practical 
consequences. It is safe to say that it 
has been more than any other single fac- 
tor the motive which has determined him 
to maintain, against the progressive spirit 
of modern civilization, the present auto- 
cratic system of government, to resist all 
liberal attempts to change the Constitu- 
tion so as to give responsible representa- 
tive government to the people and to de- 
fend what he claims as his prerogatives. 
It has determined other tyrannous meas- 
ures which have suppressed freedom of 
speech and the press and banefully op- 
pressed the liberty of the German people. 
I refer to the law of lese-majeste. 



16 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

This law, a return to the feudalism of 
the Middle Ages, is the means the Kaiser 
employs to punish those who talk back. 
He may insult his subjects, call them all 
manner of names, misrepresent their prin- 
ciples, their purposes and ideals, excite 
animosity against them "as enemies to the 
country and religion," but if they answer 
back they are met by the law of lese- 
majeste, and this law is enforced, as every 
one knows, with merciless severity to sup- 
press political opponents. 

Against the Democrats the law has 
been used as a weapon of suppression, 
though without success. Under this law 
statistics showed that up to 1898, during 
only the first decade of William II. 's 
reign, more than 1,000 years of imprison- 
ment had been inflicted upon offenders. 
A recent responsible writer asserts that 
up to 1 9 14 the sentences had reached 



The Psychology of the Kaiser IJ 

30,000 years, but I do not know upon 
what authority these figures are based. 

It is not surprising that editors of So- 
cial Democratic newspapers, many po- 
litical leaders of the party, and writers 
for the Democratic press have been 
among those who have served terms in 
prison for lese-majeste, or offense against 
the press law. 

There have been times when scarcely 
a week passed without three or four trials. 
But against the Social Democratic mem- 
bers of the Reichstag when making use of 
their prerogatives as elected representa- 
tives of the people, this law has not been 
sufficient to satisfy the Kaiser's animosity. 
So on one occasion when they refused to 
rise and cheer him, in response to a de- 
mand, the Kaiser had introduced, through 
his Chancellor, a bill to permit the crim- 
inal prosecution of these delegates. To 



1 8 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

its credit, be it said, the majority refused 
to permit this encroachment upon its 
rights. 

It is safe to say that such a criminal 
law as lese-majeste and its abuse for po- 
litical purposes in England would cost 
the King his crown. 

To this antipathy of the Kaiser may 
also be traced in large part responsibility 
for the consolidation of the autocratic 
and military party in Germany. For, 
by suppressing the political power of the 
only militant party that has opposed this 
autocracy, the Kaiser has been enabled 
to solidify his power and intrench him- 
self with his army as the dominating po- 
litical force which has determined the 
foreign policies of the empire. 

It is safe to say that if the democracy 
had been in power, or if the constitutional 
system of government had been such that 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 19 

the Social Democratic Party, in and out 
of the Reichstag, could have made its in- 
fluence felt, the foreign and military poli- 
cies and methods of the Government 
would have been far different and there 
would have been no war. Germanism 
and Pan-Germanism would not have 
threatened the world.* 

* Surprise has been expressed that the Social Demo- 
crats, in view of their avowed principles and their plat- 
form, did not in the beginning throw their influence 
against the war, but are patriotically supporting the 
government. In other words, that there is a United 
Fatherland. There is no question that the Social Demo- 
crats were bitterly opposed to this war and yet they 
cast their 111 votes in the Reichstag unanimously in 
favor of the war budget, but it was after war had been 
declared by the Upper House and the Emperor. 

This seems on the face of the facts a complete re- 
versal of the Party policy and yet it is easily under- 
stood. 

The Social Democrats, though opposed to militarism 
and war, are first and all the time patriots. They 
have always declared that if the Fatherland were at- 
tacked they would rally to its defense, and all the world 
knows that the German people as a whole have been 
made to believe that the Fatherland was attacked. 

In 1907 Bebel, then leader of the Party, declared in 



20 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

More than this, it is impossible, I be- 
lieve, for any one to study the internal 

a debate in the Reichstag that if the Fatherland were 
attacked even he, in his old age, would "shoulder a mus- 
ket" in its defense. And in the next Party Convention 
he declared: 

"I said, if the Fatherland really must be defended, 
then we will defend it. Because it is our Father- 
land. It is the land in which we live, whose lan- 
guage we speak, whose culture we possess. Because 
we wish to make this, our Fatherland, more beauti- 
ful and more complete than any other land on earth. 
We defend it, therefore, not for you but against 
you." 

Likewise Von Vollmar later said in the Bavarian 
Diet: 

"If the necessity should arise for the protection 
of the realm against foreign invasion, thtn it will 
become evident that the Social Democrats love their 
Fatherland no less than do their neighbors; that 
they will as gladly and heroically offer themselves, 
to its defense. On the other hand, if the foolish 
notion should ever arise to use the army for the sup- 
port of a warring class prerogative, for the defense of 
indefeasible demands, and for the crushing of those 
just ambitions which are the product of our times, 
and a necessary concomitant of our economic and 
political development, — then we are of the firm con- 
viction that the day will come when the army will 
remember that it sprang from the people, and that 
its own interests are those of the masses." 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 21 

politics of Germany without arriving at 
the firm conviction that the elimination 

As S. P. Orth, from whose work I take these quota- 
tions, says, "This makes their position very clear." 

When war was declared the position which the Social 
Democrats were obliged to take was also clear. It was 
not a question of opposing the war. As Patrick Henry 
declared, in his famous speech at the beginning of our 
own Revolution, "Gentlemen may cry 'Peace! Peace!' 
But there is no Peace. The war has actually begun." 
And so with the Social Democrats, it was only a ques- 
tion of voting supplies. The Social Democrats dis- 
claimed all responsibility for the war. As Deputy Haase 
said in the Reichstag in explanation of the vote of his 
colleagues : 

"The responsibility for this calamity falls upon 
those who are responsible for the imperial policies 
that led to it. We absolutely decline all responsi- 
bility. The Social Democrats fought this policy 
with all their might. At this moment, however, the 
question before us is not war, or no war. The war 
is here. The question now is one of defence of the 
country. Our nation and the future of its liberty 
are jeopardized by a possible victory of Russian 
despotism, the hands of which are stained with 
blood of the best of its own nation. Against this 
danger it is our duty to secure the culture and in- 
dependence of our land." 

And the Vorwaerts, the official organ of the Social 
Democrats, on July 30th, just before the declaration 
of war, announced: 



22 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

of German militarism, for which the war 
is being waged, and therefore the hope 

"We are opposed to militarism, and we reaffirm 
our opposition to monarchism, to which we have al- 
ways been opposed, and always will be. We have 
been compelled from the first to lead a bitter strug- 
gle against the temperamental wearer of the crown. 
We recognize, however, and we have stated it re- 
peatedly, that William II. has proved himself to 
be a sincere friend of peace among the nations, 
particularly in later years. . . . But even the 
strongest character is not entirely free from influ- 
ence, and we regret to say that proofs are accumu- 
lating in abundance that the clique of war shouters 
have been at work again to influence the govern- 
ment in favor of the devastation of the whole of 
Europe. . . . 

"In England it is the general opinion that the 
German Kaiser in his capacity as the ally and ad- 
viser of Austria was the arbiter in this trouble and 
had it in his power to let peace or war fall from 
the folds of his royal robes. And England is right. 
As conditions are, William II. has the decision in his 
hands." 

It will thus be seen that although the Social Demo- 
crats feel that the Kaiser and the military party are to 
blame for the war, they also necessarily feel that as 
patriots they must support the Fatherland as would be 
the case with any party in any country. But it also 
follows that if the Democracy had been in control of the 
government of Germany there would have been no war. 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 23 

of permanent world's peace, must rest 
upon the German Democratic Party. 
From this viewpoint, the study of the 
Kaiser's antipathy for the Social Demo- 
crats offers a most fruitful psychological 
study. 

Why, then, I repeat, so much feeling 
when the Kaiser thinks of the Social 
Democratic Party? Why such hatred of 
it? Why such anger? Why such a per- 
sonal attitude? 

To explain it on the ground of differ- 
ences in political principles, as a politi- 
cal antipathy intensely expressed in terms 
of an intense emotional personality, is a 
superficial and inadequate psychological 
explanation, although it is commonly 
satisfying as a political explanation. The 
two are not synonymous. The reasons 
for this distinction will appear as we pro- 
ceed. 



24 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

If the party represented only a small 
band of criminal agitators, of militant 
anarchists, let us say, who sought by as- 
sassination and terrorism to destroy the 
existing Government, such an attitude of 
mind would be easily comprehensible 
and would need no analysis. But the So- 
cial Democratic Party in 1888, on the 
accession of William II., on the basis of 
one voter in every five of the population, 
represented less than 4,000,000 subjects, 
and in 19 12 over 21,000,000, a third of 
the total population.* It is, therefore, 

* The steady growth of the Social Democratic Party 
has been phenomenal and is of importance in the bearing 
it has upon the future. In 1871 the party cast only 
124,000 votes and from that time to 1912 there has been 
an almost continuous increase, as may be seen from the 
following table: 

1871 124,000 

1874 352,000 

1877 493,000 

1878 437,000 

1881 312,000 

1884 550,000 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 25 

representative of a large part of the pub- 
lic opinion of the empire, and, above all, 
of the working classes. Indeed, it is the 
largest political party in the empire. 
Criminal agitation is, therefore, out of 
the question. 

In other countries political feeling in 
times of crises often runs high, and at 
times statesmen, rulers, leaders of politi- 
cal parties generally, have strong political 
bias and feel intensely hostile to their po- 
litical opponents ; but they do not regard 
them as foes of their country, and God, 
and religion, to be crushed by every force 
in the power of the Government; and they 
rarely carry their hostility, and anger, 

1887 763,000 

1890 1,427,000 

1893 1,787,000 

1898 2,107,000 

1903 3,011,000 

1907 3,259,000 

1912 4,250,000 



26 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

and hatred into social and industrial life, 
as has been the case with the German 
Emperor. 

Furthermore, the persistency of the 
Emperor's antipathy is remarkable. It is 
like an obsession. He has retained, un- 
diminished, his hatred of the Social 
Democrats from his accession to the out- 
break of the war, and has never ceased 
to angrily stigmatize them with such emo- 
tional epithets as I have cited. 

Now it is probable, owing to a psycho- 
logical law, that when strong emotion, 
out of all apparent proportion to the 
cause, is excited by some object, that ob- 
ject has struck some sentiment, a "com- 
plex" of ideas and emotions deeply rooted 
in the personality, but not squarely ad- 
mitted and faced by consciousness. Ex- 
amples of this we see every day. 

A strong protectionist inveighs with 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 27 

intense anger against the principle of free 
trade and the political party that advo- 
cates this principle in its platform. The 
reason he consciously gives is the eco- 
nomic disadvantage which, he appre- 
hends, will result to the country at large. 
But though this may be the reason, or 
rather one reason for his political opin- 
ion, it is not the real reason for his emo- 
tion — his anger and his invectives. 

These are due to the fact that the free- 
trade doctrine strikes a chord within him 
which resonates with selfish fear for his 
own business interests, and the reaction 
of this chord is anger. In other words, 
to use a homely phrase, while apparently 
speaking from the viewpoint of political 
principles, he is really "talking out of his 
pocket." But he does not squarely face 
and perhaps is only half conscious or en- 
tirely unconscious of this fact. This 



28 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

selfish viewpoint is his "unconscious at- 
titude of mind." 

Now, is the Kaiser's antipathy to the 
Social Democrats merely the expression 
of an academic disbelief in Marxian 
principles of Socialism and a disbelief in 
the practicability of such principles if 
applied by the State to political govern- 
ment? Or are these only ostensible rea- 
sons for his antipathy? If the latter, a 
study of the Kaiser's mind ought to re- 
veal deep-rooted sentiments of another 
kind which will explain his emotional 
reaction. But in that case, for a complete 
explanation, we must inquire what there 
is that is peculiar in the political tenets 
of the Social Democracy that touches 
these sentiments and excites the reaction. 
In other words, it is a question of the 
Why. 

These questions rise above a banal cu- 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 29 

riosity to inquire into a peculiar personal 
dislike of an Emperor, however that 
might be justified by the exalted world- 
position which he occupies. They are 
important in that, if pursued, they may 
lead to a deeper understanding of his 
personality, and they may unfold both 
his viewpoint of government as exempli- 
fied by the German system and the an- 
tagonistic viewpoint of the German De- 
mocracy, which for many years has been 
striving against the power of the Em- 
peror to force its ideals and aspirations 
upon the autocracy that rules Ger- 
many. 

All these questions are involved in the 
psychology of the personality of the 
Kaiser. The political questions are in- 
volved, for no personality can be under- 
stood apart from its environment to 
which it reacts, and which is largely re- 



30 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

sponsible for the formation of "senti- 
ments." 

The sentiments are of prime and fun- 
damental importance in the formation of 
a personality. I use the term "senti- 
ments" in a restricted psychological sense 
and not in accordance with popular 
usage. I shall have occasion later to ex- 
plain how sentiments are formed after 
we have become acquainted with some of 
the Kaiser's mental attitudes. 

Meanwhile I would simply explain in 
justification of this inquiry, that charac- 
ter depends upon the psycho-physiologi- 
cal organization of ideas, derived in the 
broadest sense from life's experiences, 
with the innate primitive instinctive dis- 
positions to behave or react to given situ- 
ations (i. e., to react to the environ- 
ment). 

Thus, on the one hand, sentiments are 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 31 

formed which characterize our attitude 
toward life, including therein our per- 
sonal, social, political, and industrial re- 
lations to the world about us ; and, on the 
other, the inborn natural instincts of man 
are harnessed, controlled, and repressed, 
or cultivated and given free rein. Upon 
the development of sentiments, therefore, 
not only the behavior of the individual 
depends, but the whole social organiza- 
tion. Of course, in a brief article of this 
kind we shall be obliged to limit our- 
selves to a few of the sentiments involved 
in the questions placed before us and 
therefore to a very limited study of the 
Kaiser's personality. 



II 

THE KAISER'S PREROGATIVES 

ET us go back to the year 1888, 
-■— ' when the Kaiser came to the throne. 
In his very first speech to the Prussian 
Diet he proclaimed with noticeable em- 
phasis that he was "firmly resolved to 
maintain intact and guard from all en- 
croachment the chartered prerogatives of 
the Crown." (The Kaiser, edited by 
Asa Don Dickenson, page 113.) It was 
noticed that he laid marked stress on 
these words, so that it was publicly com- 
mented upon by those who heard him. 
This intention to defend his prerogatives 
the Kaiser has consistently maintained 
ever since, and more than once has pro- 
claimed. What are the "prerogatives" 

32 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 33 

about which the Kaiser took the very 
first opportunity to warn Germany and 
about which he has been so tenacious? 
They can be briefly stated. 

In the first place, we must know it is 
the Kaiser's prerogative not to be respon- 
sible to the people or to Parliament, but 
only to himself. He does not derive his 
power from either, but he reigns by his 
own right. This is his prerogative. Fur- 
thermore, he not only reigns, but it is his 
prerogative to govern. The King of 
England reigns, but, as has so often been 
said, he does not govern. In England 
the responsibility for governing rest? en- 
tirely with the Ministry, which in prin- 
ciple is only a select committee of Par- 
liament. It is the English Parliament, 
therefore, and practically the elected 
House of Commons that governs. 

In the second place it is the Kaiser's 



34 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

prerogative to appoint a Chancellor to 
help him govern. He has no Cabinet, 
nor Board of Advisors. The Chancellor 
is responsible only to the Emperor. Par- 
liament may be entirely opposed to him, 
but in such case he does not necessarily 
resign, as would the British Prime Min- 
ister, nor is it the customary usage. He 
may not have been a member of Parlia- 
ment when appointed. The Kaiser alone 
may dismiss him, as he dismissed Bis- 
marck. The Emperor may disregard him 
and his advice, if he likes ; so that in prac- 
tice he may be his own Chancellor, as it 
is commonly said in Germany he has been 
ever since Bismarck's dismissal and as 
Bismarck foretold would be the case. 

A third prerogative is to appoint the 
Ministers, the heads of the great depart- 
ments — Navy, Foreign Affairs, Colonies, 
&c, who are under the Chancellor. 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 35 

Thus all executive power resides in the 
Kaiser. Parliament has none. We may 
say it is the Kaiser's prerogative to be 
the administration. 

A fourth prerogative is to be Com- 
mander in Chief of the Army and to have 
absolute authority over the forces of the 
army both in peace and in war. (Art. 
63 of the Constitution.) It is his pre- 
rogative to "determine the numerical 
strength, the organization, and the di- 
visional contingents of the imperial 
army"; also to appoint all superior of- 
ficers. (Art. 64.) That the Kaiser re- 
gards this as one of his most cherished 
prerogatives the world well knows. 

A fifth and exceedingly powerful pre- 
rogative is to appoint and control the 
seventeen members of the upper house — 
the Bundesrath, or Federal Council — the 
most powerful upper house in the world. 



36 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

The Kaiser thus has the votes — only 
fourteen being required — to defeat any 
amendment to the Constitution, and in 
practice he has always controlled a ma- 
jority of the Council, which has been the 
creature of the Kaiser throughout its 
history. With the consent of the Council 
he can declare war, but, as the Council 
is a lady of easy consent, this limitation 
need not bear hardly and the wooing need 
be but short and light. 

A sixth prerogative is to initiate all 
legislation, although indirectly, through 
his controlled Federal Council, of which 
the Chancellor is President. The lower 
house, the Reichstag, elected by the peo- 
ple, cannot initiate legislation, so well did 
Bismarck fix the Constitution for the ben- 
efit of Prussia and the Kaiser. 

All measures must originate in the up- 
per house, which can also veto them 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 37 

when amended in the Reichstag, and can 
dissolve the latter (with the Kaiser's con- 
sent) if it doesn't like its ways. (Think 
of the House of Lords dissolving the 
Commons!) The Kaiser has thus very- 
great power in controlling legislation. 
(With almost innumerable parties, none 
of which has a majority, in the House, 
log-rolling under an astute Chancellor 
has been raised to a fine art that would 
make an American State Legislature 
blush like a neophyte.) 

The Reichstag, however, can refuse to 
vote supplies and to pass measures fa- 
vored by the Kaiser. The elected repre- 
sentatives of the people can thus talk, 
resolve and criticise, and refuse to follow 
the Kaiser and thus create a public 
opinion which he may or may not dare to 
oppose, but they can do little more. 



Ill 

THE KAISER'S DIVINE RIGHT DELUSION 

T? INALLY, the Kaiser claims that his 
-*- prerogative to govern is derived 
from God, granted by the Almighty to 
his house, the house of Hohenzollern. 
This is far from being meant as a figure 
of speech or mere rhetoric, or an allegori- 
cal expression of religious responsibility 
for duties to be performed. It is a deep, 
all-abiding belief and principle of ac- 
tion. 

It is difficult for us Americans of the 
twentieth century fully to grasp this be- 
lief in a present-day man of boasted cul- 
ture, from whom we expect common 

sense. We may laugh at it, but in its 

38 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 39 

practical consequences it is no laughing 
matter. It is fundamental to the Kai- 
ser's viewpoint and to an understanding 
of his attitude toward his subjects and 
the world. Another sovereign derives 
his right to reign, if not to govern, from 
the Constitution of his country, which 
means in the last analysis by contract with 
his people. 

But the German Emperor refuses to 
acknowledge any responsibility to the 
people, or any dependence upon the peo- 
ple, or the Constitution, or contract, for 
his right to govern. He derives this right 
directly from God. Whatever rights and 
powers the people possess descend from 
the Kaiser, who grants them through the 
Constitution; the rights and powers of 
the Kaiser do not ascend from the people, 
as in a democracy. 

The concentration of irresponsible 



4-0 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

hereditary power in one man and those 
appointed by him is plainly an autoc- 
racy. "The Divine right of Kings to 
rule" is a doctrine dating back to the 
Middle Ages, and is by Americans 
naively supposed to have ended nearly a 
century ago with the dissolution of the 
"Holy Alliance," whose designs upon 
South America gave rise to our Monroe 
Doctrine in 1823. 

This doctrine of Divine right, then, 
is one of the prerogatives, if not in his 
mind the great prerogative, which the 
Kaiser announced he was resolved to de- 
fend. And it does not belong to the pres- 
ent Kaiser alone, but was possessed, as 
he claims, by his long line of ancestors 
of the House of Hohenzollern, and will 
descend to his successors of this house. 
It is the prerogative of his house. Thus 
he announced : 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 41 

It is the tradition of our house that we, the 
Hohenzollerns, regard ourselves as appoint- 
ed by God to govern and to lead the people 
whom it is given us to rule, for their well- 
being and the advancement of their material 
and intellectual interests. 

And again: 

I look upon the people and nation handed 
on to me as a responsibility conferred upon 
me by God: and that it is, as is written in 
the Bible, my duty to increase this heritage, 
for which one day I shall be called upon to 
give an account; those who try to interfere 
with my task I shall crush. 

And again: 

I regard my whole position as given to me 
direct from heaven, and that I have been 
called by the Highest to do His work, by 
One to Whom I must one day render an 
account. 



42 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

This claim as German Emperor, or as 
King of Prussia, has been announced 
again and again by the Kaiser, and his 
words have been quoted by the press, by 
magazine writers and pamphleteers and 
bookmakers unto weariness of the reader. 

The prerogatives we have briefly sum- 
marized are imperial, but be it noted 
they are double-headed in that — mutatis 
mutandis — they also belong to William 
II. as King of Prussia so far as the con- 
stitutional relations of the kingdom to 
the empire make them applicable. 

The odd notion of Divine right the 
Kaiser picked up from his grandfather, 
William I., who, when he was crowned 
King of Prussia at Konigsberg, to show 
he was above the Constitution which his 
predecessor had granted the people, 
raised with his own hands the crown 
from the altar, "set it on his own head, 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 43 

and announced in a loud voice, 'I receive 
this crown from God's hand and from 
none other.' " 

And, referring to this historical inci- 
dent, the present Kaiser, William II., in 
a speech, now historic, at the same place, 
said: 

And here my grandfather, again, by his 
own right, set the Prussian crown upon his 
head, once more distinctly emphasizing the 
fact that it was accorded him by the will of 
God alone, and not by Parliament or by any 
assemblage of the people or by popular vote, 
and that he thus looked upon himself as the 
chosen instrument of Heaven, and as such 
performed his duties as regent and sovereign. 

From a psychological point of view, it 
does not matter — any more than it sig- 
nified anything to the Kaiser and his 
grandfather— that, as a matter of fact, 



44 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

the first ruling Hohenzollern of Bran- 
denburg, Elector Frederick I., acquired 
his title to the Electorate by taking from 
King Sigismund of Hungary, in 141 1, a 
mortgage on the province (the nucleus of 
modern Prussia) as security for a loan 
to that hard-up potentate of about one 
hundred thousand gulden. A little later 
he foreclosed the mortgage and took title 
— a rather poor title at that, as there was 
already a mortgage on the property which 
it was convenient for Sigismund to repu- 
diate. Perhaps royal second mortgages 
— like marriages — are made in Heaven, 
and thus they become "Divine Rights." * 
What does psychologically matter is 
that the present Kaiser has persuaded 
himself, forgetting all about this business 
transaction, that his early Hohenzollern 

*In 1701 Elector Frederick III. took the title of 
(first) King of Prussia as Frederick I. 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 45 

Shylock (in foreclosing the mortgage) 
"felt within himself the call to journey 
to this land" of Brandenburg — plainly a 
Divine call — and "was convinced that the 
task [of governing] was given him from 
above." (Kaiser's speech, Feb. 3, 1899.) 
What counts psychologically is that 
the Kaiser believes that a Divine right 
to rule is his prerogative. How, in this 
age, a man who has shown such marked 
ability in certain directions can be such 
a fool — I mean psychologically, of 
course — as to persuade himself to believe 
such stuff, is another story that would 
make an interesting psychological study 
in itself, and in the last analysis could 
probably be traced to subconscious 
wishes which have produced this con- 
scious delusion, just as such subconscious 
processes determine the delusions of in- 
sane people. 



46 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

Our conscious thoughts are much more 
determined by subconscious processes, of 
which we are unaware, than we realize. 

One great popular delusion is that our 
minds are more exact logical instruments 
than they really are, and we stand in awe 
of the minds of great men, thinking that 
because they are superior in certain direc- 
tions, therefore they are superior in all 
other directions of their activities where 
they claim superiority; whereas, as a mat- 
ter of fact, a man may be eminently supe- 
rior in certain fields of mental activity 
and psychologically a perfect fool-thinker 
and fool-performer in other fields. 

Helmholtz said of the eye that it was 
such an imperfect optical instrument 
that if an instrument maker should send 
him an optical instrument so badly made 
he would refuse to accept it and return 
it forthwith. He might have said the 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 47 

same thing of the human mind. It is a 
very imperfect instrument of thought. 
All we can say of it is, that though a poor 
thing, it is the best we can get. The 
deeper insight we get into the mechanism 
of the human mind, the poorer thing it 
appears as an instrument of precision. 

This Divine Right delusion is psy- 
chologically interesting in that it very 
closely resembles and behaves like the 
delusions characteristic of the mental dis- 
ease paranoia. This is not to say — indeed 
it would be absurd to say as some have 
said — that the Kaiser is afflicted with 
paranoia. But it is true that in normal 
people we find the prototypes of mental 
processes observed in abnormal mental 
conditions. The essential characteristic of 
paranoia is a systematized delusion: that 
is, some belief into which all sorts of facts 
of the environment are interwoven and 



48 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

through which such events, casual actions 
of other people and their motives are in- 
terpreted. Thus, an insane person may 
imagine he is the object of persecution 
and then proceed to interpret any kind of 
act of others, really unrelated to himself, 
through this belief, imagining that it is 
directed towards the end of persecuting 
him. Or a paranoiac may imagine that 
he is the divine emissary of God and then 
interpret one hundred and one everyday 
events of life as divine messages to him- 
self. 

In normal people we see the prototype 
of such a delusion in the form of a mildly 
fixed idea which leads a person to 
wrongly interpret other people's motives 
and acts. You may say, if you like, that 
he believes such and such a thing because 
he wishes to, or because of some firmly 
fixed belief through which he interprets 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 49 

it. The difference between the normal 
and abnormal person is that the former 
can, if he desires and the truth is properly 
presented, change his belief; the abnor- 
mal person cannot. 

It would be an extravagance to say 
that the Kaiser's delusion is anything 
more than a normal fixed idea which he 
could change if he wished to. But this 
fixed idea is so strong, so deeply rooted 
in his personality, and so directly the ex- 
pression of a cherished and cultivated 
wish, conscious or subconscious, that it 
dominates his interpretation of facts 
which to an ordinary person flatly contra- 
dict it. It leads him to entirely ignore 
both palpable facts, such as the purchase 
with cold cash, by his ancestor, of the 
throne, or more exactly, electorate of 
Brandenburg, and universally accepted 
understandings of the relation of God to 



50 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

the worldly affairs of men — so universally 
accepted that they have passed into the 
common-sense of mankind. We may say, 
paraphrasing the words of a subconscious 
personality known as "Sally" in a case 
of multiple personality describing the at- 
titude of mind of one of her other selves: 
"There are so many things he cannot or 
will not see. He holds to certain beliefs 
and ideas with unwearying patience. It 
makes no difference that the facts are all 
against him. He still ignores the facts, 
still idealizes himself and his preroga- 
tives." 

The Kaiser's fixed idea is, according to 
psychological laws, determined by wishes 
— his wish to be sole and autocratic ruler 
of Prussia and the Empire, his wish to 
be the sole arbiter and director of the 
imperial destinies, his wish, "considering 
himself the instrument of the Lord, with- 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 51 

out heeding the views and opinions" and 
will of his subjects to "go his way"; his 
wish to decide everything, like a patri- 
arch for the people, and to treat them like 
children; his wish to be looked up to as 
the supreme power — all these desires de- 
termine in him the belief that he is the 
"anointed of the Lord," a ruler by Divine 
authority. For only by such authority 
could he logically find justification for 
the assumption of such powers and the 
fulfillment of his desires. In other words, 
through the acceptance of the Divine 
Right Delusion he finds a means for the 
fulfillment of his wishes. And curiously 
enough, but still according to psycholog- 
ical laws, this fixed idea with its powerful 
instinct of self-assertion has awakened in 
his junker and militaristic supporters 
sentiments of self-abasement through 
which they yield submissively to this as- 



52 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

sumed prerogative of the Kaiser and 
adopt an attitude of Divinity Worship. 
Thus we have a politico-religious cult in 
which the Kaiser is the Godhead. And 
thus we have wishes conscious and sub- 
conscious, but working subconsciously, 
making a fool — psychologically speaking 
— of the Kaiser. 

The most curious part of this whole Di- 
vine Right business is that in Germany, 
with all its "Kultur," there has been 
scarcely one single voice among all the 
people of Germany publicly to deny this 
claim, excepting the voice of the Social 
Democracy; or if there has, it has been 
like a voice crying in the wilderness — or 
perhaps from behind prison bars, where 
such rashness brought the prisoner, con- 
demned under the feudal law of lese-ma- 
jeste. We shall presently see what the 
German democracy thinks about it. 



IV 

THE GERMAN AUTOCRACY AND THE ARMY 

THE practical upshot of this whole 
German system of government, in 
which imperial prerogatives and an im- 
potent opera bouffe Reichstag are essen- 
tial ingredients, is that the Kaiser with 
his Chancellor and the Ministers of the 
several departments (Foreign Affairs, 
Navy, Post Office, &c), a bureaucracy 
responsible only to the Kaiser, constitute 
an autocracy independent of Parliament 
and the voters. Consequently the Gov- 
ernment is intended to be and is for the 
State, by the State, not of the people, by 
the people. 

The Kaiser's point of view as to his 

53 



54 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

own place in the State is shown by some 
of his sayings : "There is only one master 
in this country — I am he and I will not 
tolerate another." "There is no law but 
my law; there is no will but my will," 
he told his soldiers, and, "The King's 
will is the highest law," he wrote in the 
Golden Book of Munich. 

And so, as a German Professor, Lud- 
wig Gurlitt, has said: 

He regards his people, the masses, as chil- 
dren not yet of age, and thinks the Govern- 
ment competent to prescribe the course of 
their social and cultural development — a pro- 
found and fatal mistake ... a mediaeval 
idea ! 

Autocracy makes for efficiency, but it 
also makes for the suppression of the as- 
pirations of the people and self-govern- 
ment. But if the Kaiser, the bureau- 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 55 

cracy, and an emasculated Parliament 
were the whole system of government, au- 
tocracy would be incomplete. The sys- 
tem would crumble away as by an earth- 
quake when democracy became success- 
ful at the polls. 

The system, therefore, must be sup- 
ported by power of some kind. Without 
power behind the throne, or behind any 
government, autocratic, monarchical, or 
republican, that government would fall 
at the first shock of internal conflict. In 
a real republic that power is the will of 
the people — commonly called public 
opinion. But we have seen that the Ger- 
man system does not rest upon public 
opinion. Upon what, then? William 
II., indeed, as the "instrument of the 
Lord," has flaunted his own defiance of 
public sentiment. 

Five years ago he said: 



56 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

Considering myself as the instrument of 
the Lord, and without heeding the views and 
opinions of the day, I go my way. 

Behind the German autocracy is the 
army, under the absolute control of the 
Kaiser. Upon the army the Kaiser de- 
pends for the security of his rule. The 
army is the power behind the throne. 

As one writer remarks: 

"The army is the foundation of the social 
structure of the empire. " 

The Kaiser, on one occasion, declared: 

With grave anxiety I placed the crown 
upon my head. Everywhere I met doubt, 
and the whole world misjudged me. But one 
had confidence in me; but one believed in me 
— that was the army. And relying upon 
the army, and trusting in God, I began my 
reign, knowing well that the army is the 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 57 

main tower of strength for my country, the 
main pillar supporting the Prussian throne, 
to which God in His wisdom had called me. 

He said in 1891 : 

The soldier and the army, not parliamen- 
tary majorities and decisions, have welded 
together the German Empire. My confi- 
dence is in the army — as my grandfather 
said at Coblenz : "These are the gentlemen 
on whom I can rely." 

And again, asserting his belief in mili- 
tary force as the means upon which the 
empire must rely to accomplish its ends 
at home and abroad, he quoted the say- 
ing of Frederick William I. : 

If one wishes to decide something in this 
world, it is not the pen alone that will do it 
if unsupported by the power of the sword. 



58 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

In his first official act as Emperor, 
(June 15, 1888,) he declared: 

The absolutely inviolable dependence upon 
the war lord (Kriegsherr) is, in the army, 
the inheritance which descends from father 
to son, from generation to generation. . . . 
So we are bound together, I and the army. 
Thus we are born for one another, and thus 
we will hold together in an indissoluble bond, 
in peace or storm, as God wills. 

This close connection between the 
army and the Prussian Kings, as Profes- 
sor Gauss points out, is a tradition which 
William II. has sedulously maintained, 
just as we have seen he has maintained 
the traditions of a Divine right to rule. 



THE KAISER'S SENTIMENTS 

WITH the meaning of all these pre- 
rogatives in mind, let us look a 
bit more closely into the psychology of 
the Kaiser. In doing so let us bear in 
mind that in the doctrine of Divine right 
we see developed in the Kaiser a strong 
sentiment of the most personal kind, of 
birthright, of self-interest. And, be- 
sides this, in all the other prerogatives 
which the Kaiser has so defiantly re- 
solved to defend against all encroach- 
ments, we also have sentiments of self- 
interest — sentiments of possession, of 
rights pertaining to self. 

All these sentiments are bound up with 

59 



60 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

a consciousness of his own personality 
(a "self-regarding" sentiment), with his 
ego. And there is a great deal of 
ego, of consciousness of his ego, in his 
personality. Perhaps his enemies would 
say, as was said of the great orang-utan, 
Bimi, in Kipling's tale — Bimi, who also 
wished to crush his enemies in furious 
outbursts of jealous rage — "there is too 
much ego in his cosmos." 

Now, as a matter of psychology, "senti- 
ments," as I have already said, are of tre- 
mendous importance as factors in per- 
sonality and as forces which determine 
attitudes of mind, reactions of the per- 
sonality to the environment and conduct. 

Upon the formation of "sentiments" 
the character of a person and his social 
behavior fundamentally depend. And by 
the formation of sentiments in the course 
of the individual's mental development 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 61 

the primitive innate instincts of human 
nature are harnessed and brought under 
control and their impulses given proper 
direction. Thus these primitive impulses 
are repressed or cultivated according to 
the ideals of society. Otherwise, driven 
by the impulses of our innate instincts, 
we should all run amuck through society. 

We must understand, then, a little 
more precisely what, psychologically and 
technically speaking, a sentiment is. I 
am not using the word in the popular 
sense. Without going into the psychol- 
ogy deeply, we may say that a sentiment 
is an idea of something, as its object, or- 
ganized or associated with one or more 
instinctive emotions which give the idea 
impulsive force. 

In the personality of every human 
being — and the same is true of animals — 
there are a number of emotional instincts. 



62 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

These instincts are characterized by a 
particular emotion which each possesses, 
and may be named indifferently, for our 
present purposes, either after the emotion 
itself or after the biological aim which 
the instinct serves. 

Every person, for instance, possesses a 
pugnacity instinct of which the emotion 
is anger. Other such instincts are fear, 
parental feeling, disgust, curiosity, self- 
assertion, self-abasement, reproduction, 
and so on. All such instincts have a bio- 
logical function in that they serve either 
to protect, like anger and fear, the indi- 
vidual (and the species) from danger 
against its enemies and prevent its ex- 
tinction, or, like the parental and repro- 
ductive instincts, serve to perpetuate the 
species, or like the curiosity instinct, to 
acquire knowledge and learn by experi- 
ence, and so on. Emotion, as the very 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 63 

word itself indicates, moves us — i. e., it is 
a force that impels toward some end and 
the emotion of each instinct carries it to 
fulfillment. 

When an emotion — i. e., instinct — has 
been excited by some object, whether it 
be a material thing, like a snake, or an- 
other person, or something mental — an 
idea of a material object, or a thought as 
of a possible danger to the individual, 
or of a political principle — the emotion 
may become so associated with and bound 
to the object that whenever the object is 
presented in consciousness the emotion 
is excited. This particularly happens 
when the emotion has been frequently 
excited by the same object. 

Thus a person may acquire a fear of 
snakes, or thunderstorms, or hatred of 
a person. Two or more emotional 
instincts may be organized in this way 



64 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

into a system about a given idea as 
their object. 

Now, when an idea always excites one 
or more emotions, so that the idea is al- 
ways accompanied by the same emotional 
reaction, the whole is called a sentiment. 
Thus we have the sentiment of love of 
a mother for her child, of hatred of a 
tyrant, of disgust for a vicious person, of 
pride of self, and so on. 

Practically, psychological analysis 
shows that the organization of a senti- 
ment is more complicated than such a 
simple arrangement would make it, and 
that the sentiment is deeply and widely 
rooted in a number of ramifying, pre- 
vious mental experiences and innate emo- 
tions. This is expressed by popular lan- 
guage when we say a given sentiment is 
deeply rooted in a person's personality. 
The emotions serve to give their ideas 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 65 

great intensity and driving force for ac- 
tion. 

It is held by some psychologists that a 
sentiment always includes innately organ- 
ized systems of several emotions so that 
a different emotion is necessarily excited 
according to the situation in which the 
object presents itself. Thus a hated per- 
son will awaken in us joy, or sorrow, or 
anger, or fear, according to whether he 
suffers injury, or escapes destruction, or 
prospers, or is likely to get the better of 
us. 

In accordance with this view a senti- 
ment is an organized system of emotions 
centred about an idea of an object. The 
mechanism, as I have stated it, however, 
is sufficiently accurate for our purpose. 

With these general principles in mind, 
one has only to read the Kaiser's speeches 
to recognize that his ideas of himself and 



66 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

of his prerogatives, which he jealously 
defends, are organized with instinctive 
emotions of great intensity — emotions be- 
longing to greed of possession, and pride, 
and self-assertion, (or self-display,) and 
pugnacity, and vengeful emotion, and 
jealousy. These ideas are therefore sen- 
timents deeply fixed and organized in his 
personality, and given great driving force 
by their emotions, which tend to carry 
them to activity and fruition. 

Hence it is that the Kaiser's sentiments 
of himself and his prerogatives exhibit 
great intensity of feeling and determine 
his conduct to assert his rights and to ex- 
ercise and enjoy them by being his own 
Chancellor and ruling the army and em- 
pire, and, if need be, to defend them most 
vigorously. 



VI 

THE KAISER'S SELF-REGARDING SENTI- 
MENT 

T3 UT we must leave these traits of the 
■*-J Kaiser's personality for the imme- 
diate issue of our study. One sentiment, 
however, ought to be considered more 
intimately if certain of his most notori- 
ous peculiarities are to be understood. I 
refer to what has been called the "self- 
regarding" sentiment. 

Every person possesses such a senti- 
ment, although it varies according to the 
ingredients that enter into it. Professor 
William McDougall, one of the most 
eminent of contemporary psychologists, 

has analyzed this sentiment, and at- 

67 



68 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

tributes it to the biological instincts of 
self-assertion and self-abasement com- 
pounded in varying proportions with the 
idea of self. (These instincts are com- 
mon to animals as well as men and have 
a biological end.) We thus get different 
types of self. 

When the first instinct of self-asser- 
tion — also called self-display — with its 
emotion of positive self-feeling is the 
chief instinct, then we have a type in 
which pride is the main characteristic of 
the idea of self. When the second in- 
stinct (with the emotion of negative self- 
feeling) is happily blended in the senti- 
ment, we have a type of self-respect. 

To illustrate the former type, Pro- 
fessor McDougall (Social Psychology) 
draws the character of an imaginary 
Prince in whom the first instinct is the 
dominating one. It is interesting to see 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 69 

how perfectly his picture represents the 
Kaiser: 



Imagine the son of a powerful and foolish 
Prince to be endowed with great capacities 
and to have in great strength the instinct of 
self-display with its emotion of positive self- 
feeling. Suppose that he is never checked, 
or corrected, or criticised, but is allowed to 
lord it over all his fellow-creatures without 
restraint. The self-regarding sentiment of 
such a child would almost necessarily take 
the form of an unshakable pride, a pride 
constantly gratified by the attitudes of defer- 
ence, gratitude, and admiration of his social 
environment; the only dispositions that would 
become organized in this sentiment of pride 
would be those of positive self-feeling or 
elation and of anger (for his anger would 
be invariably excited when any one failed to 
assume toward him the attitude of subjection 
or deference). 



70 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

His self-consciousness might be intense and 
very prominent, but it would remain poor 
in content; for he could make little progress 
in self-knowledge; he would have little occa- 
sion to hear, or to be interested in, the judg- 
ments of others upon himself; and he would 
seldom be led to reflect upon his own char- 
acter and conduct. The only influences that 
could moralize a man so endowed and so 
brought up would be either religious teach- 
ing, which might give him the sense of a 
power greater than himself to whom he was 
accountable, or a very strong natural en- 
dowment of the tender emotion and its al- 
truistic impulse, or a conjunction of these two 
influences. 

A man in whom the self-regarding senti- 
ment had assumed this form would be in- 
capable of being humbled — his pride could 
only be mortified; that is to say, any display 
of his own shortcomings or any demonstra- 
tion of the superiority of another to himself 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 71 

could cause a painful check to his positive 
self-feeling and a consequent anger, but could 
give rise neither to shame nor to humilia- 
tion, nor to any affective state, such as ad- 
miration, gratitude, or reverence, in which 
negative self-feeling plays a part. And he 
would be indifferent to moral praise or 
blame; for the disposition of negative self- 
feeling would have no place in his self- 
regarding sentiment; and negative self-feel- 
ing, which renders us observant of the atti- 
tude of others toward ourselves and recep- 
tive toward their opinions, is one of the es- 
sential conditions of the influence of praise 
and blame upon us. 

The inordinate cultivation in the 
Kaiser of the self-regarding sentiment 
with the unalloyed instinct of self-dis- 
play also explains, psychologically, the 
manifestations of certain traits which 
have amazed the world. I mean his 



72 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

colossal vanity as manifested by his fond- 
ness for dressing himself up in all sorts 
of uniforms and constantly changing his 
costumes — on occasions as often as five 
or six times in a single day, and even dur- 
ing the course of a Court reception — his 
fondness for having himself photo- 
graphed or painted, or his portrait made 
as busts, lithographs, medals, and bas-re- 
liefs, always posing in heroic attitudes for 
the purpose. 

It is interesting to compare the snap- 
shots of the Kaiser with the posed pho- 
tographs (there are thousands of photo- 
graphs of him), and not only as himself, 
but in the heroic character of a Roman 
Emperor mounted on a charger, and 
again in imitation of the Emperor Char- 
lemagne. 

It explains his self-assumption to be an 
artist — a painter, a musician, a composer, 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 73 

an architect, an art critic, a preacher, and 
Heaven knows what else. It also gives a 
psychological explanation of his inability 
to stand personal criticism, and for his 
vain obtuseness in not being able to un- 
derstand how any one should not look 
upon him excepting with reverent awe. 
One of the authors of "The Kaiser" cites 
the following two incidents. 

One of his subjects had been sentenced 
to prison for hinting something disre- 
spectful about his sovereign: 

William was genuinely amazed that such 
an unnatural crime could ever have been com- 
mitted. He u read and reread the papers in 
the case with the closest attention"; and 
finally said to the waiting official : "It would 
seem that this man hitherto has not been a 
criminal — son of respectable parents, himself 
in a respectable walk of life, with a good 



74 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

education. And yet — how do you explain 
this — this insult to the Anointed of the Lord? 
Strange! Strange!" 

On another occasion: 

After reading a speech of the Socialist 
leader Bebel, containing some animadver- 
sion upon himself, he turned to the officer 
in attendance with clouded brow and flash- 
ing eye, and remarked in a voice trembling 
with passion : u And all this to me ! To me ! 
What is the country coming to?" 

This self-regarding sentiment is also at 
the bottom of that dominating trait — love 
of power — which has led him to aspire 
to world power and to believe that with 
his army and with a stronger navy, 
toward the upbuilding of which he has 
directed untiringly his energies, he could 
conquer the world. It even led him to 
think of conquering the United States, for 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 75 

when we were engaged in war with Spain 
he declared, as I have authority for say- 
ing, "If I had had a larger fleet I would 
have taken Uncle Sam by the scruff of 
the neck!' * 

* In a letter to the author, July 7, 1898, Joseph Cham- 
berlain, then Colonial Secretary of Great Britain, wrote: 

"Of course you will win, and will be able to dictate 
terms to Spain. The Continental Powers will not inter- 
fere because England will not join them. I am certain 
that if opinion here had been different to what it is, you 
would have had to face a European coalition. 

"A fortnight ago (do not quote me as the authority) 
the German Emperor said to a friend of mine, 'If I had 
had a larger fleet I would have taken Uncle Sam by 
the scruff of the neck' — and this represents the view of 
the older monarchies who begin to desire a Monroe Doc- 
trine for Europe. But, in view of the attitude of this 
country, they dare not move. 

"You are therefore free to work out your destiny." 

I have now been fully authorized to publish this letter. 
There is much other corroborative evidence, which is 
undoubtedly accessible, of this attempt to form a Euro- 
pean coalition against the United States and of its 
being blocked by England. (See letter of Mr. G. Creigh- 
ton Webb, in the New York Times, June 2, 1915.) In 
this connection the following statement in my possession 
giving a conversation between another member of the 
English Cabinet and the late Mr. F. W. Holls, formerly 
Judge of the First Hague Tribunal (and my informant's 



76 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

That this saying of the Kaiser's meant 
more than a mere momentary ebullition 
of petulant feeling or a thoughtless boast 
becomes manifest when we bear in mind 
that it was made towards the end of 
June, 1898, after the arrival of Vice- 
Admiral von Diedrich and his fleet 
at Manila on June 12. It is significant 
that von Diedrich, when asked by Dewey 
why so large a German naval force — five 
ships, a more powerful force than that of 
the American fleet — was present, replied, 
"I am here by order of the Kaiser, sir," 

guardian), at least is of corroborative value. This Cabi- 
net officer (mentioned by name) said to Mr. Holls that 
during the Spanish-American war, the Continental Pow- 
ers had a plan to secure England's assent to interven- 
tion. One of the London ambassadors was appointed 
to sound him on the proposition, he being then Acting- 
Prime Minister. On being asked if intervention would 
meet with the views of Her Majesty's government, he 
said: "Intervention had indeed been considered, but — 
that the only form it could possibly take would be to 
place the fleet of Great Britain at the disposal of the 
President of the United States!" 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 77 

and the same explanation has been given 
since. We know now that there was an 
attempt made to form a coalition of Con- 
tinental monarchies against the United 
States to intervene in the war in favor of 
Spain, but that it was blocked by Eng- 
land who, there is evidence to show, 
threatened to place her navy on the side 
of this country. Consequently Germany 
and the other Powers dared not move. As 
it was we came to the brink of war in July 
through the action of von Diedrich in in- 
terfering, after the battle of Manila, May 
1, with the blockade by Dewey.* 

* It has come to light that events went so far that a 
German ship, it has been reported, cleared for action 
and Dewey, in the famous choleric interview (July 10) 
with the German Admiral's representative, Flag-Lieuten- 
ant v. Hintzer, threatened war if Germany wanted it. 
This part of the interview was thus reported to Mr. 
John Barrett by "one of the officers of the Olympia who 
heard the conversation": "If the German Government" 
(said Dewey) "has decided to make war on the United 
States, or has any intention of making war, and has so 



78 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

The remark of the Kaiser that he 
"would have taken Uncle Sam by the 
scruff of the neck" must be taken in con- 
nection with all the events of the time and 
particularly with the attempt to form a 
European coalition against the United 
States which probably would have been 
successful had it not been for the action 
of England. 

And so this same self-regarding senti- 
ment, distorted and unbalanced, in co- 
operation with other sentiments, led him 
in 191 4 to have contempt for the other 
Powers and to believe that he had a 
strong enough army to terrify Russia and 
her ally, France, into submission, and so 
he gave Austria authority to take Servia 
"by the scruff of the neck" ; to feel, in case 

informed your Admiral, it is his duty to let me know. 
. . . But whether he intends to fight or not I am 
ready." (Admiral George Dewey, by John Barrett: 1899: 
p. 115). 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 79 

the gleam of the "shining armour" and 
the clang of the rattling sabre did not 
suffice, that he had a strong enough army 
to take Russia "by the scruff of the neck," 
and so he declared war against that coun- 
try; to feel that he had a strong enough 
army to take France "by the scruff of the 
neck," and so he declared war against 
France; to feel that he had a strong 
enough army to take Belgium "by the 
scruff of the neck," and so he invaded that 
country with his army; and it led him 
more than twenty years ago to believe 
that some day he would have a strong 
enough navy to take England "by the 
scruff of the neck," and so he builded and 
builded his navy and drank to "Der 
Tag." 

Of course the Kaiser's hypertrophied 
and one-sided self-regarding sentiment 
was not the sole psychological factor in 



80 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

determining his attitude of mind towards 
the United States and the other Powers. 
There were many factors, but it was one; 
and it accounts for his notorious con- 
tempt for other nations and at that time, 
particularly, for the United States. 
There were also sentiments of World- 
power and Empire, of German Kultur 
and War- Worship; a desire to have a 
"place in the sun," to possess colonies and, 
in particular, the Philippines and those 
of England and France; and to extend the 
German Empire to the iEgean Sea on 
the south and the North Sea on the north. 

The self-regarding sentiment, obvi- 
ously, has played also a large part in the 
Divine Right Delusion, ia cooperation 
with the wishes we have considered, form- 
ing a large ego-centric complex. 

Such, and other manifestations of the 
Kaiser's self-regarding sentiment, due to 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 81 

the impulsive force of its highly devel- 
oped instinct of self-display, (self-asser- 
tion,) would make this element of his 
personality an interesting psychological 
study by itself. I merely wish now to 
point out that it is the extreme type of 
this sentiment that is responsible for 
many of his extravagances of speech and 
action, and that it plays a part, as we 
shall see, in his reactions to democracy. 



VII 

AIMS OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRACY 

NOW let us return to the Kaiser's 
hatred of democracy. This also is 
a sentiment organized with several emo- 
tional instincts, &c, which we need not 
bother about here. That he has a hatred 
of democracy is obvious. 

But why? 

To know that he has a hatred is not 
enough. We want it explained, to know 
why. It is not a sufficient explanation 
to say that he disbelieves in the princi- 
ples of democracy. That would not be 
sufficient to account for the develop- 
ment of the sentiment of hatred and for 
the reaction of anger which democracy 

82 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 83 

excites. What created the hatred? For 
so much emotion there must be a deeper- 
lying cause — some hidden sentiment 
which, we may suspect, conflicts with the 
sentiments of his cherished prerogatives 
and his self-regarding sentiment. 

We want to know the Why. With this 
object let us consider the object of the 
hatred — the aims of the party of democ- 
racy, one of the great political forces in 
Prussia and the empire; one with which, 
as we have seen, the Emperor has been 
passionately in conflict since his acces- 
sion to the throne. We cannot under- 
stand the psychological reaction of the 
Emperor without understanding the aims 
and the potential power of this political 
force. For this purpose I shall have to 
ask the reader to bear for a moment 
with a slight digression, keeping in mind 
what has been said about the Kaiser's 



84 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

sentiments until we return to our main 
theme. 

What does the Social Democratic 
Party stand for and in what respect are 
its aims antagonistic to the Emperor's 
prerogatives and the German system of 
government? The party is widely re- 
garded in the United States, I am con- 
strained to believe, as the party of so- 
cialism. But this idea needs consider- 
able modification. Indeed, so much so 
that the party would, if its aims were un- 
derstood, receive the moral support of 
Americans. 

Socialism has an ominous sound to 
American ears. The word has a stigma 
for many and is calculated to repel. At 
one time in its early history Marxian 
Socialism, formulated by Marx himself 
as "the social ownership of the means of 
production and distribution," was the 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 85 

dominating aim of the German Socialist 
Party. 

But times have changed. The aims of 
the party have undergone various meta- 
morphoses as the result of conflicts of 
factions within, fusions and political evo- 
lution. Since the Kaiser came to the 
throne in 1888 a revolution has taken 
place in the aims, methods, tactics, and 
programs of the party. In accordance 
with this change, in 1890, the name 
was changed to the Social Democratic 
Party. Socialism has been relegated 
to the background and democracy 
has become the paramount aim and 
issue. 

In other words, the principles of the 
socialist, Marx, have given place to those 
of the brilliant democratic leader, Las- 
salle. Both men are dead, but democracy 
survives. As one authority (S. P. Orth) 



86 The Psychology of the Kaiser 
puts it, "Marx is a tradition, democracy 



is an issue." 



Today one hears very little of Marx 
and a great deal of "legislation" based 
on democratic principles: 

The last election [19 12], with its brilliant 
victory for Social Democracy, was not won 
on the general issues of the Erfurter pro- 
gram, but on the particular issue of the ar- 
rogance of the bureaucracy and ballot re- 
form. 

Marxian propagandism has been 
sloughed off. But even if the Demo- 
cratic Party still stood for socialism as 
its paramount aim this fact would not 
necessarily make it antagonistic to the 
Emperor's prerogatives or the German 
system of government. The State might 
become engaged in all sorts of individ- 
ual enterprises without the fundamental 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 87 

structure of Government becoming al- 
tered. As a matter of fact, Germany is 
today the most socialized nation in the 
world. 

We will not stop to inquire into the 
origin of this State Socialism. It does 
not matter for our purposes that these 
State socialistic measures were offered as 
a "bribe," to use Bismarck's term, to the 
Social Democrats to cease agitation 
against the government, and that the Em- 
peror long ago dropped this policy when 
he found that the Social Democrats 
would not be bribed. They would have 
none of these measures. They wanted 
political rights, political freedom of 
thought and speech, and the right to man- 
age their own government just as we do 
ours in the United States. 

The German State owns railroad, 
canal and river transportation, telegraph 



88 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

and telephone systems, harbors and a par- 
cel post. It conducts banks, insurance, 
savings banks, and pawnshops. It ad- 
ministers sick and accident insurance and 
old-age pensions. The municipalities 
own public utilities of all kinds, theatres, 
markets, and warehouses. 

The State, or municipality, obviously 
might go further and administer iron, 
coal, and manufacturing enterprises; it 
might undertake all sorts of socialistic 
functions without altering one whit the 
prerogatives of the Crown, or of Par- 
liament, or of the relations of the Gov- 
ernment to the people. Governmental 
autocracy would still exist and very 
likely would administer these industrial 
enterprises with the same satisfying ef- 
ficiency with which it administers every- 
thing else it has taken hold of. 

The intense anger and hatred with 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 89 

which the Emperor reacts to the Social 
Democrats cannot, therefore, be ex- 
plained by the principles of socialism 
per se, although he may disbelieve in ex- 
treme Marxian socialism. Even if these 
were still the aim of the party, there must 
be some other explanation that a Social 
Democrat should be stigmatized as an 
enemy of the empire, of religion and 
God, to be shot down by the army if his 
party became too strong. 

Let us examine then the demands as 
given in the latest program (1912) of 
the Social Democrats and some of the 
legislation for which they have fought. 
The demands are given in fourteen ar- 
ticles. 

Number one demands equal opportu- 
nities for all, special privileges to none — 
good American doctrine. Number two 
relates to reform of the ballot laws and 



90 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

has been the main immediate issue. 
"Universal, direct, equal, secret ballot" 
is demanded — also American doctrine. 
Owing to the present inequality of the 
ballot the Democrats have been badly 
handicapped in that they cannot elect 
their proportionate number of repre- 
sentatives. 

Number three relates to the existing 
system of government. A true Parlia- 
mentary Government is demanded, and a 
Ministry, like that of England, responsi- 
ble to Parliament, instead of the present 
autocratic system by which the Ministry 
is responsible only to the Emperor. Also, 
it is demanded that "the power to declare 
war or maintain peace" be given to the 
lower house (Reichstag). Consent of 
the Reichstag to all State appropriations 
(as with the House of Commons and the 
American Congress). 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 91 

Numbers four and five relate respec- 
tively to the organization of the army and 
reform of administrative justice, abolish- 
ing class privilege at law, &c. Number 
six demands the "right to combine, meet, 
and organize." Number seven relates to 
the establishment of a national Depart- 
ment of Labor, factory inspection, and a 
legalized universal eight-hour day, &c. 
Number eight relates to reform of the 
industrial insurance laws, and lowering 
the age of old-age pensions from 70 to 
65, &c. 

Number nine: complete religious free- 
dom. Separation of Church and State. 
No support of any kind for religious pur- 
poses from public funds — good Ameri- 
can doctrine again. Number ten de- 
mands universal free schools. Number 
eleven relates to reform of taxation de- 
manding abolition of indirect taxes and 



92 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

taxes on necessities of life and reduction 
of tariff on those schedules which encour- 
age trusts. 

Number twelve supports "measures 
that tend to develop commerce and 
trade." Number thirteen: "A graduated 
income, property and inheritance tax" 
in order to dampen "the ardor of the rich 
for a constantly increasing army and 
navy." Number fourteen: "Internal im- 
provements and colonization"; but the 
"cessation of foreign colonization now 
done for the purpose of exploiting for- 
eign peoples for the sake of gain." 

The first thing that will strike the 
reader is the absence of anything essen- 
tially socialistic in the principles formu- 
lated in this program. They are rather 
what we in this country would call "Re- 
publican," "Progressive," and "Demo- 
cratic." They are not nearly as social- 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 93 

istic as many of the functions now under- 
taken by the German State. With the 
exception of those articles that relate ex- 
clusively to German conditions (such as 
numbers four and eight) and the aboli- 
tion of indirect taxation, they express 
good American doctrine and are, for the 
most part, axiomatic in this country. 

No American and no Englishman 
would see anything in them to get ex- 
cited about, although he might hold a 
different opinion about the expediency 
of one or the other demand. Undoubted- 
ly the spirit of German democracy goes 
further than the program, especially in 
particular parts of Germany; neverthe- 
less this program formulates the demands 
of the national party. 

Between the American Republic and 
German democracy there is, or should be, 
a bond of common sympathy, the bond of 



94 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

common political ideals and common 
purpose — the love of political and reli- 
gious liberty, freedom of thought, free- 
dom of speech, and freedom of the press 
without fear of imprisonment or punish- 
ment under "lese-majeste" or any power 
of the State; the emancipation of man- 
kind from the tyranny of autocracy; the 
"right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness" according to the dictates of 
the individual conscience; the rule of the 
people and not of an autocracy, the sub- 
ordination of the State to the will of the 
people — and to this end government 
based not upon an army, but upon public 
opinion as expressed by the votes of the 
people. 

When these ideals and purposes of the 
German democracy are realized in the 
United States, American public opinion 
will have the strongest ties of sympathy 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 95 

with the great masses of Germany, strug- 
gling for these ends against an intrenched 
"State." 

Between German democracy and 
American public sentiment there can be 
no conflict. It is only with the autocratic 
classes that there can be antagonism, but 
the autocratic classes mean the State as 
an artificially created entity isolated from 
and distinct from the masses of the peo- 
ple. 

Why, then, does the Emperor almost 
alone, even among Germans, react to 
the ideals of democracy with such pas- 
sion, such anger, and such hatred? On 
psychological grounds we can anticipate 
that such emotion must be for personal 
reasons and because they strike some in- 
tense emotional sentiment. 

We find the key to the puzzle when we 
come to examine Articles 3 and 4. Num- 



96 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

ber three has been the paramount issue 
of the democracy — it is its foundation 
stone. Number two, the reform of the 
ballot, while the main political issue of 
the day, is only a means to this end. 

The fundamental issue is (1) a true 
Parliamentary Government, with parlia- 
mentary power in conformity with mod- 
ern democratic ideas, such as obtains in 
England; and (2) the abolition of a 
Chancellor and Ministry appointed by 
the Kaiser and responsible only to the 
Kaiser and the substitution of a Govern- 
ment responsible to Parliament. Thus 
the Government and the army would be 
responsible to the people and rest upon 
public opinion. 

This democratic principle seems to our 
ideas not only harmless enough, but a 
matter of course and only the expression 
of the age we live in. But to the Kai- 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 97 

ser it means a personal cataclysm. It 
means the abolition of the greatest of the 
Kaiser's prerogatives; it means the denial 
of the Divine right of Kings; it means 
the downfall of the House of Hohenzol- 
lern, in that it means the reduction of 
the prerogatives of the house to reigning 
without governing. 

He could be no longer his own Chan- 
cellor, as he is recognized generally to 
be today in fact. His wings would be 
clipped. He would be shorn of auto- 
cratic power. He could no longer dic- 
tate policies of government. The will of 
the people would rule. What would be 
the use of a "Divine right" to sit as a 
social ornament upon a throne and watch 
the people rule? 

Furthermore, his "self-regarding sen- 
timent," characterized by the instinct of 
self-assertion and the emotion of pride, 



98 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

would receive an unbearable rebuff. He 
would no longer be the central figure in 
Europe, overlording all other rulers by 
his personality, his autocratic power, and 
his prerogatives. The conflict between 
the Kaiser and the democracy thus be- 
comes a personal conflict on his part. 



VIII 

THE REAL CAUSE OF THE KAISER'S 
ANTIPATHY 

/FATHERING together the facts 
^-* which we have collated, we have 
found in the Kaiser intensely strong senti- 
ments of his prerogatives, an almost ab- 
normal self-regarding sentiment, and a 
powerful, steadily growing political 
party acting in antagonism to those sen- 
timents and threatening in case of suc- 
cess to rob him of his prerogatives. 

Now, with these facts in mind, let us 
analyze the antecedent contents of the 
Kaiser's mind a little more intimately. 
If he has been a thinking being at all, we 
know, in view of the political and his- 

99 



ioo The Psychology of the Kaiser 

torical facts we have studied — any asser- 
tion to the contrary would meet with in- 
credulous skepticism — there have been 
thoughts, however fleeting, of what 
would happen to himself and his house 
if the democratic reforms should prevail; 
thoughts of being robbed of his preroga- 
tives, robbed of his power to rule the 
Kingdom of Prussia, to rule the Imperial 
Bundesrat by his power as King of 
Prussia, to rule the Reichstag through 
the Bundesrat; thoughts of being robbed 
of the prerogatives to be his own Chan- 
cellor, to appoint his own Ministry, to 
control the army, to be independent of 
Parliament and public opinion and the 
public will — in short, robbed of being an 
autocratic ruler of the Kingdom of Prus- 
sia and the German Empire by Divine 
right. 
And there has been a full realization 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 101 

of the increasing power of democracy, 
steadily growing in numbers, and rising, 
swelling, year by year, like a great ir- 
resistible tidal wave, threatening sooner 
or later to carry all before it and over- 
whelm the system of autocracy. And 
against this growing avalanche of bal- 
lots of the democracy he sees no defense 
for himself save the army, and so he 
calls upon his soldiers to be prepared to 
"shoot down your own relatives, brothers, 
and even parents in the streets," when 
he shall give the word of command. 

Such thoughts and such realizations of 
future danger could not but excite the 
biological defensive instinct of fear. And 
this instinct, being associated with its ob- 
ject, the idea of democracy, forms a sen- 
timent, the fear of democracy. This sen- 
timent is further associated with or crys- 
tallized about other egoistic sentiments of 



102 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

self and his House and his prerogatives. 
Hence it may be described as a fear of 
democracy because of the danger to him- 
self and his House of Hohenzollern, a 
fear of being deprived by the hands of 
the democracy of his prerogative to be 
an autocrat. It is a fear of democracy, 
not for Germany but for himself. He 
fears for his own life, so to speak, for, 
if you rob him of his prerogatives, do 
you not take away that which to him is 
his life? 

This does not mean that he is aware 
of this very personal egoistic or egocen- 
tric fear-sentiment. He undoubtedly 
would not admit it to others, nor is it 
likely that he could, even if he would, 
admit it to himself, because it has not 
been squarely faced, but has been thrust 
aside, repressed by the pride of his self- 
regarding sentiment and not allowed to 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 103 

come to the full light of consciousness. 
Though not recognized by himself, it is 
there all the same, repressed into the sub- 
conscious, or, if you prefer, in the back- 
ground of the mind (which, after all, is 
a part of the subconscious). 

Repressed into the subconscious, it is 
there necessarily intimately systematized 
with, and has deep roots in, the many 
associated antecedent thoughts that, as 
we have seen, gave rise to it. So long 
as these so-called psycho-genetic thoughts 
are there unmodified — conserved also, 
like a phonographic record, in the sub- 
conscious — he could not get rid of his 
fixed fear of the democracy if he would. 

In this light his famous declaration of 
his prerogative, "I am the Supreme War 
Lord," receives deeper meaning when at 
the same time we remember he is the 
head of that autocracy that wields the 



104 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

power. We can see into the background 
of his mind. He sees the danger, we see 
the fear. We see, too, in the background 
of his mind a realization of a growing 
democracy, and we find there upon what 
methods he relies if the German democ- 
racy should win at the polls and change 
the Constitution. To oppose the will of 
the people he has the army. And we 
see into his inner consciousness when he 
prepared (as already quoted) the minds 
of his young soldiers for "the day." 



IX 

THE KAISER'S ANTIPATHY AN OBSESSION 
AND A DEFENSE REACTION 

NOW let us go one step further. Al- 
though this egocentric sentiment of 
fear for himself and his dynasty is re- 
pressed into the subconscious, it is not for 
that reason inert and incapable of affect- 
ing his conscious processes. On the con- 
trary, as we are forced to believe from 
the result of psychological investigations 
into such conditions of personality, it de- 
termines many of his conscious processes 
of thought, of his political principles and 
his activities against his most dangerous 
political enemy. 

In the first place, it induces a defense 

105 



106 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

reaction of an intensely emotional char- 
acter which aims to direct his activities in 
a direction that will protect him against 
the dangers of democracy. This defense 
reaction is anger and the sentiment of 
hatred. 

It should be explained that psychologi- 
cal analysis of the emotions goes to show 
that the sentiment of hatred is made up 
of several emotions associated with its 
object, of at least fear and anger and 
vengeful emotions, which last also in- 
cludes anger besides that most conspicu- 
ous trait of the Kaiser — the self-regard- 
ing sentiment. 

The way the defense reaction comes 
into play is this: The instinctive emo- 
tions and their sentiments are awakened 
and recur from time to time whenever 
the subconscious egoistic sentiment or 
any of its associated psychogenetic 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 107 

thoughts — those of his possible fall from 
power — is touched. The sentiments of 
fear he will not admit to himself, and 
they are repressed as such; but the fear- 
emotion appears in consciousness dis- 
guised as hatred, of which it is a compo- 
nent. Anger against and hatred of 
democracy he is prepared to admit. 
They are fully faced and rise into the full 
light of consciousness, although their real 
underlying cause is hidden. 

Such an intensely fixed emotional idea, 
(hatred,) recurring whenever its object 
is presented to consciousness, is, in prin- 
ciple, an obsession, although it may not 
be so beyond control as to be pathologi- 
cal. But, as in the Kaiser's case, it may 
be only the apparent obsession, i. e., a 
defense reaction to the real obsession hid- 
den in the subconscious. The Kaiser s 
real obsession is a subconscious phobia, a 



108 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

fear of democracy for himself and his 
House. 

It is interesting to notice in this con- 
nection how the national hatred of one 
nation for another is recognized by pop- 
ular language as a phobia or fear. We 
speak of an Anglo-phobia, of a Russo- 
phobia, to describe the hatred of, let us 
say, Germany for England and Russia. 
Though the nation would not admit 
being afraid, nevertheless, by the very 
term employed, it is popularly recog- 
nized that the hatred is really though un- 
consciously the expression of a fear. 

In the case of the Kaiser's phobia of 
democracy, the impulsive forces of the 
biological instincts of pugnacity, (anger) , 
fear, self-assertion, &c, provide the en- 
ergy of the fighting spirit and carry to 
fruition his political ideas aimed at re- 
pressing the Social Democrats. This is 



The Psychology of the Kaiser 109 

exemplified by the Kaiser's exhortations, 
threats, and epithets hurled in his 
speeches at these alone of his political en- 
emies, and by the laws enacted and the 
use of the lese-majeste to suppress them. 
By suppressing the Social Democracy he 
is defended from his peril. Hence, as 
I have said, anger and hatred is a defense 
reaction. 

There are other ways in which the 
Kaiser's subconscious phobia uncon- 
sciously determines his mental behavior 
— by this I mean his modes or reasoning, 
his political principles and activities. As 
is well recognized not only by psycholo- 
gists but by popular notions, such a re- 
pressed, unadmitted sentiment becomes a 
motivating force, a subconscious motive 
that directs our conscious reasonings. 

Thus the Kaiser rationalizes, as psy- 
chologists say, his political objections to 



no The Psychology of the Kaiser 

democracy — that is, unwilling to admit 
his real objections, he finds and formu- 
lates logical reasons why democracy is 
wrong and why his own opinions are 
right, really believing in them, perhaps, 
as God-given. Saving the introduction 
of the Deity, this is nothing more than 
what every one does who is unconscious- 
ly influenced by subconscious motives of 
which he is unaware. 

When we say that a person is uncon- 
sciously influenced by this or that, un- 
consciously governed by a prejudice or 
sentiment like jealousy or fear or am- 
bition or what not, we mean that he is 
governed by a motive which is subcon- 
scious, which he will not admit to him- 
self, and of which he is therefore un- 
aware. It determines his thoughts just as 
the hidden works of a clock determine 
the movements of the hands and chimes. 



THE MORAL 

WHAT is the moral of all this? 
Surely the insight into the Kai- 
ser's mind which a study of his senti- 
ments and his phobia has given us reveals 
something more important than the mere 
personality of an exalted personage — ex- 
alted in the eyes of the world. It gives 
us an insight into the political forces 
which are wrestling within the German 
Empire for those ideals for which hu- 
manity has been striving through all the 
ages. It reveals the forces which for 
years have been striving with might and 
main to suppress these ideals. And it re- 
veals the forces upon which the world 

must depend to overthrow Germanism. 

in 



H2 The Psychology of the Kaiser 

The Kaiser and his House of Hohen- 
zollern and all that they stand for have 
become Civilization's World-Problem. 

If the Powers of Europe want lasting 
peace through the overthrow of autoc- 
racy and militarism, i. e., Germanism, the 
obsession of the Kaiser points the way — 
look to the democracy of Germany! 



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